Bahá’í World/Volume 18/Loretta L. Scherer
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LORETTA L. SCHERER
1907—1980
CARL A. SCHERER 1900—1982 Knights of Bahá’u’lláh
EXPRESS LOVING SYMPATHY LOSS YOUR DEAR PARTNER KNIGHT BAHAULLAH LORETTA SCHERER. YOUR JOINT SERVICES ENGRAVED ANNALS BELOVED GUARDIANS GREAT CRUSADE. ASSURE PRAYERS SACRED THRESHOLD PROGRESS HER SOUL ABHA KINGDOM.
Universal House of J ustice 31 October 1980
SADDENED LEARN PASSING DEVOTED SERVANT CARL SCHERER KNIGHT BAHAULLAH MACAO. OFFERING ARDENT PRAYERS HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS HIS SOUL KINGDOMS GOD.
Universal House of Justice 14 October 1982
Dad will always be remembered for his devotion, for his indefatigable travelling in the service of the Blessed Beauty, for his love for all races, for his patience and gentleness, and for his love of music and violin-making. He was born on 7 March 1900, the third of four children of RobeIt W. and Ida (Koch) Scherer, in New Ulm, Minnesota, U.S.A.
Mother will always be remembered for her
kindness, her tireless devoted service to everyone, her consecrated promotion and protection of the Cause of God and for her beautiful
smile. She considered unimportant her pre
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IN MEMORIAM
Loretta L. Scherer Carl A. Scherer
Bahá’í life, but for the history books let me state that she was born on 8 December 1907 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the fourth of twelve children of Herman and Elsie (Lyman) Bremer. She married Dad on 28 February 1925. I was born on 22 September 1929, their only child.
We travelled and moved many times as my father was a salesman. From 1931 until 1936 we lived in China where Dad worked for the Texas Oil Company. Mother enjoyed horseback riding and acting in the theatre at this time. But always we gravitated back to Milwaukee where most of our family lived. Mrs. Florence Petersen, who was to become my mother-in-law, heard of the Bahá’í Faith first. Within six months she and her husband, Charles, and their son Glenn and I, became Bahá’ís in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, on 12 January 1949. Glenn and I were married in August of that year and moved to Madison where Glenn was finishing his last year at the University of Wisconsin. We came back to Wauwatosa to Visit in November, and what a beautiful surprise—my parents had just become Bahá’ís and were present at the Feast. It
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was the happiest feeling being part of an entirely Bahá’í family.
When the Ten Year Crusade was launched in 1953. Mother and Dad volunteered to pioneer t0 Macao for which service they were named Knights of Bahá’u’lláh.l Dad was appointed an Auxiliary Board member in 1954. Sometimes Mother travelled with him and sometimes she held down the homefront in Macao where they helped raise a Local Spiritual Assembly. She and Dad attended the Teaching Conference in Nikko, J apan, in September 1955 and both may be seen in the conference photograph, a copy of which hangs in the Mansion Of Bahjí.
In 1958 Mother and Dad returned to the United States and lived for a short time in Shorewood, Wisconsin. Then, in 1959, they pioneered again, this time to Portugal. They lived in Lisbon for a short while and finally settled in Sintra (formerly Cintra) where they helped form a Local Spiritual Assembly. They made teaching trips to Faro, Portimao and Espina. Dad was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of Portugal and had the privilege of voting for the members of the first Universal House of Justice. He voted by mail as he was unable to afford to travel to the Holy Land. Dad was very sick in January 1963 and, with their work completed in Portugal, they attended the London Conference in April 1963 on their way home to Milwaukee.
Their longing to be of service resulted in their winging their way, in 1970, to Funchal, Madeira, where they served with Ed Bode.2 In March 1973 they went back to Macao, stopping in Haifa for pilgrimage. Mother’s poor health and the difficulty of finding accommodation they could afford in Macao forced their return to the United States in June 1973. Here they settled in Burlington, Wisconsin, a homefront goal city. Mother suffered a cerebral haemorrhage on 1 October 1980. The Hand of the Cause D_hikru’llah Khádem chanted prayers at her sick—bed. On 30 October she passed on and was buried in the Burlington Cemetery. On 10 October 1982 Dad died of congestive heart failure and was buried next to Mother. I thank God for my beautiful and extraordinary parents who have shown forth pure and holy deeds. Al 1 Shoghi Effendi, Messages to the Bahá’í World, p. 57. 2 See ‘ln Memoriam', The Bahd‘z’ World, vol. XVI, p. 566.
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most everywhere they lived, even before they became Bahá’ís, now seems to be blessed with a flourishing Bahá’í community. They lived in New Ulm, Minnesota; Milwaukee, Shorewood, Wauwatosa, Wausau and Burlington, Wisconsin; Austin, Texas; Kingston, Jamaica; Shanghai and Tsingtao, China; Mukden (now in Russia); Charlotte, North Carolina; Mechanicsburg No. 3, Pennsylvania; Evanston, Illinois; Macao; Sintra, Portugal and Funchal, Madeira. If it is true that the presence of pure and detached souls in a community attracts divine bounties, might we not confidently expect that Burlington, Wisconsin, Funchal, Shanghai, Tsingtao and Mukden will in time be abundantly showered with substantial blessings?
DOROTHY VIRGINIA (SCHERER) PETERSEN
